9 July 2025 | GENDRO
Who gets to decide what counts as truth? Why are certain bodies—especially gender nonconforming and disabled ones—so often reduced to data points, risks, or problems to fix? I’ll share some insights and tracing some links between gender conversion therapy and behaviourist models agenda still used today, and reflect on how data is being used to shape policy in ways that silence resistance. Autism shows up as a trending flashpoint recently, but the bigger story is about power, control, and how we might start reclaiming evidence on our own terms.
Speaker : Beatrice Leong is a Malaysian documentary filmmaker and gender-disability activist who believes in the power of stories to name what others silence. When she was finally diagnosed with autism in adulthood, after a lifetime of psychiatric and medical injustice, she began using storytelling to reclaim what was lost and connect with others who’ve been left out. Alongside filmmaking, she works across national, regional, and global spaces to advance disability inclusion, policy change, and narrative justice. Beatrice also serves on the advisory board of the Disability Justice Project, a media platform that supports disabled human rights defenders in the Global South through storytelling and advocacy.
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